The Ethics of Optional Item Sales

[Bomb_Toss]

As the MMO gaming industry shifts from the adventure of the 2000's to a formulated money-driven F2P, a discussion about consumer ethics needs to take place. I'm talking about the optional items in FFXIV. The following is why I believe the practice is unethical in a subscriber model.

As a subscriber, I pay a monthly fee that is calculated based on the cost of the assets created for the game, the labor for their creation, and the updates/maintenance required to upkeep the game. That is the mutual agreement with SE when we give them $12-$14 a month. But FFXIV's optional items are assets created with subscriber money and then posted as completely stand alone items for the game because they are thought to be good enough to sell alone. This forces subscribers to pay more if they want the item they are paying SE, already, to create. In the end, such monetary practices devalue subscribers and create an incentive within the industry to lock the best content/design from subscribers.

In response, many that support these practices argue that services are similar. I disagree. Services are unlike the optional items because they only grant convenience. You can still create a new char on a different server with a sub. Also, I don't blame anyone that has bought these items--it is SE's fault as a company they provided this monetary policy. In the future, I would hope SE would revise this current strategy because it appears to be unethical to its subscribers.